Praise for the Bright Generalist.

2 reviews of the book, here and here, wherein i am lauded for my narcissism, lack of rigour, and my “winning puerility;” compared to no less than Wittgenstein, MFK Fisher, and Montaigne; and challenged to a duel. you can imagine my feelings – delighted that the book is doing okay (we sold a ton at Expozine, which i was too ill to attend), all the more that it appears to be resonating with chumps of similar predilections to my own.

the latter review appears on a blog by fellow Montréaler, Dress As Smart As You Are, that immediately charmed me – the adorned prose, the spare, tasteful design that eludes my own presentation, and posts like these about stemless cognac tumblers and chemex coffeemakers.

I find there is something profoundly moving in the way the physical world works, manifested in the way that we understand it, which is through science. Not only does the Chemex Coffeemaker tackle this by using scientific knowledge to try to make the perfect brew, the act of brewing coffee itself is a kind of ritual, a form of personal alchemy we undertake every morning. Equipment like this draws a thin blurred line through my mind reinforcing the idea of science as a form of magic.

the blog concerns itself with fashion, literature, music, and assorted material accoutrements, which makes it sound as if it is about nothing at all, but overall it is guided by a patent fixation on design. i hesitate, though, to describe it as a design blog; let it suffice to say that it is concerned with the matter of (to crib the latter half of a phrase) living smart. i can share Adam Ginglin’s appreciation for a certain deftness of design, even if my tastes tend to run more to the dilapidated (see: the wine glass rack i built myself out of the wreckage of our condemned front balcony). the upshot of which is when we finally meet, Moriarty to Moriarty, as he puts it, i anticipate being the less well-fitted out of the two.

everyone needs a nemesis who respects their work. perhaps he shall so oblige me.